Mr. Speaker, one year after the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games, the CEO of VANOC, John Furlong, is attacking all those who dared to criticize the lack of French during the opening ceremonies.
Denying any responsibility, he has the audacity to even accuse the great Quebec songwriter, Gilles Vigneault, of being responsible for the lack of French because he did not want his song, Mon pays, to be misrepresented. He also has scathing comments about the Commissioner of Official Languages, sports journalist Réjean Tremblay, and the Bloc Québécois for asking him to speak French.
The reality is that Mr. Furlong is incapable of admitting that he failed to plan an opening ceremony that also reflected the French fact, which makes us doubt his sincerity when he said that he wanted French to figure prominently.
Mr. Furlong's comments demonstrate a serious lack of sensitivity and understanding regarding the decision by francophones to communicate in their own language, and he is reverting to an old habit of blaming those who wish to express themselves in French.